Haydn: Le Pescatrici

This recording from the 1992 Lithuanian Haydn-Schubert Festival in Vilnius is the only one ever made of Franz Joseph Haydn's second opera for Eszterháza, Le pescatrici (The Fisher-girls). Performed three times in 1770 and then tucked away, the score was partly lost even during Haydn's lifetime, presumably damaged in a 1779 fire that destroyed the main theater at the palace. In 1965, top Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins-Landon supervised composer Karl Heinz Füssl in the composition of some patches to make up the missing music so ... Read More

This recording from the 1992 Lithuanian Haydn-Schubert Festival in Vilnius is the only one ever made of Franz Joseph Haydn's second opera for Eszterháza, Le pescatrici (The Fisher-girls). Performed three times in 1770 and then tucked away, the score was partly lost even during Haydn's lifetime, presumably damaged in a 1779 fire that destroyed the main theater at the palace. In 1965, top Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins-Landon supervised composer Karl Heinz Füssl in the composition of some patches to make up the missing music so that the work could be premiered, but that hasn't led to more than an occasional revival, and the opera wasn't given in the United States until 2009. This production was led by Hungarian-American conductor (and painter) Olga Géczy and was previously released in an inauspicious, subcutaneous package on an obscure label; Hungaroton has reissued it here with a much snappier and rather amusing cover depicting an underwater Haydn.Carlo Goldoni's libretto is sort of a cross between the... Read Less